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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Toronto mayor won't air video of faceoff

Ford's, reporter's version of confrontation at odds

By: Josh Visser

Posted: 05/4/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

AARON LYNETT / POSTMEDIA NEWS ARCHIVES Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is in a feud with the Toronto Star. (POSTMEDIA (AARON LYNETT/NATIONAL)

TORONTO -- The Fords will not release surveillance-video footage of an incident involving Mayor Rob Ford and Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale Wednesday evening, Coun. Doug Ford says.

"As far as we are concerned, the police have seen it. We don't need to prove that he was there -- Daniel Dale admitted he was there, Rob caught him there, the neighbours saw him there," Doug Ford told the National Post.

When asked why not release the video to the public, considering Dale's and the mayor's versions of the events differ sharply, Doug Ford demurred.

"It's with the police right now. You can see his head bobbing up and down behind the fence. It's a distance from the cameras to the fence, but you can see distinctly his head bobbing," he responded.

"It's not even the point. The thing is, it might not have been the Toronto Star hiding in the bushes; it could have been some nut case."

Dale had gone to Ford's neighbourhood for a story about how the mayor was attempting to buy a sliver of neighbouring Scarlett Mills Park to build an enhanced security fence.

In an account in the Star, Dale said the mayor ran at him with his fist raised and threatened him, forcing Dale to drop his cellphone and personal recorder.

Ford said he never physically touched Dale but admitted to cornering him near his fence, although on public property.

"I never laid a hand on the guy," Ford said on 640AM radio Thursday morning. "I said, 'Buddy, I am giving you two seconds to get out of here.' He said, 'Don't hit me, don't hit me. Here's my cellphone, here's my tape recorder.' "

Doug Ford said he's told his younger brother he should have security, something previous Toronto mayors have had.

"Rob thinks he's just the average guy and says, 'I don't need security,' and I remind him that, 'You're the mayor of the largest city in Canada, the mayor of the fifth-largest city in North America,' " Ford said.

"I don't care if it's Rob as mayor or someone else, you definitely need security for the mayor in these times."

Ford also said the mayor should not have confronted the person near his fence but should have just called police.

Earlier Thursday, Rob Ford demanded the Toronto Star remove Dale from the city hall beat and said he won't talk to any other reporters if Dale is around.

"I will not be talking to any reporters if he's part of that scrum. They have to take him out of city hall," Ford said on The John Oakley Show on AM640 Thursday morning.

Toronto Star spokesman Bob Hepburn says Dale, who won a National Newspaper Award last week, will not be leaving the beat.

"This is a bad move on the mayor's part. How does he expect to get his views known, whether it's in the Toronto Star or in the National Post?" Hepburn said.

Ford has long been at odds with the Star, and he says the paper's reporting constitutes "harassment. They are a left-wing paper; they don't like what I am doing," he said.

Hepburn bristled at the suggestion. "We are not harassing, we are not stalking the mayor or his family... We are covering the mayor in a professional and courteous manner."

-- Postmedia News

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TORONTO -- A Toronto company, Meltwater Group, has analyzed the social media response to Wednesday night's incident near Mayor Rob Ford's home and says Twitter users are siding with the Toronto Star.

Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale and Ford became trending topics on Twitter nationally after the incident.

Twitter is not exactly a representative example of the population of the whole. Twitter users tend to be younger, more liberal and much more likely to be members of the media than the general public.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 4, 2012 A15

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